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>Preface</H1
><P
>&#13;    Gutenprint is the print facility of the GNU Image Manipulation
    Program (GIMP). It is in addition a suite of drivers that may be
    used with common UNIX spooling systems using Ghostscript or CUPS.
    These drivers provide printing quality for Linux, MacOS X and UNIX
    on a par with proprietary vendor-supplied drivers in many cases,
    and can be used for many of the most demanding printing tasks,
    especially for high quality printing on modern inkjets, including
    “photographic quality” models which offer very high
    resolutions and several inks.  The core of Gutenprint is a shared
    library (libgutenprint) which may be used by any program that
    wishes to produce high-quality printed output.
  </P
><P
>&#13;    This manual documents the use of the
    <SPAN
CLASS="application"
>Gutenprint</SPAN
> package, focusing mainly on
    the libgutenprint library that is the core of
    <SPAN
CLASS="application"
>Gutenprint</SPAN
>.  Parts of the manual which
    describe the use of libgutenprint are aimed primarily at
    programmers, and do assume that the reader is familiar with C
    programming, and using standard programming tools on GNU or UNIX
    systems.
    </P
><P
>&#13;    For the end-user, there is a separate manual documenting
    programs that come with Gutenprint, including the
    <SPAN
CLASS="application"
>GIMP</SPAN
> <B
CLASS="command"
>print</B
> plugin,
    and the <SPAN
CLASS="application"
>CUPS</SPAN
> and
    <SPAN
CLASS="application"
>Ghostscript</SPAN
> drivers.
  </P
><P
>&#13;    To learn how to use libgutenprint in your own programs is to look
    at the source of the <B
CLASS="command"
>testpattern</B
>, located in
    <TT
CLASS="filename"
>src/testpattern</TT
>, as well as
    the source of the other programs that use libgutenprint, and
    libgutenprint itself.  Most importantly, please consult the API
    reference and libgutenprint headers.
  </P
><P
>&#13;    The manual is split into several parts for the programmer.  It
    starts with a simple usage example of how to link a program with
    libgutenprint, then how to integrate this into package build
    scripts, using <B
CLASS="command"
>make</B
>,
    <B
CLASS="command"
>autoconf</B
> and <B
CLASS="command"
>automake</B
>.  The
    appendices cover the detail of the inner workings of some parts of
    libgutenprint.
  </P
><P
>&#13;    The following sections detail the dither and weave algorithms used
    in libgutenprint, the ESC/P2 printer control language used in Epson
    printers and how to add support for a new printer to libgutenprint.
  </P
><P
>&#13;    <P
CLASS="literallayout"
>We&nbsp;hope&nbsp;you&nbsp;enjoy&nbsp;using&nbsp;Gutenprint!<br>
—The&nbsp;Gutenprint&nbsp;project<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</P
>
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